American Humane is continuing to put its best paw forward by hosting its 11th annual Hero Dog Awards, a competition honoring courageous and extraordinary canines in several categories.
American Humane — the country’s first national humane organization — recently opened the first round of voting for the contest, allowing the public to decide which three dogs of over 300 nominees will advance as semifinalists.
Introducing additional groups this year, the Hero Dog Awards’ seven categories are law enforcement and detection, military, therapy, service, shelter, search-and-rescue and guide/hearing dogs.
Among the competitors, five local dogs will be participating, including Dusty the Service Dog (Boca Raton), Luna the Therapy Dog (Tequesta), Zeo the Service Dog (North Palm Beach), Oscar the Therapy Dog (Coral Springs) and Cobra the Law Enforcement and Detection Dog (Miami).
“For thousands of years, dogs have protected us, comforted us and given us their unconditional love,” said Mark Stubis, chief communications officer at American Humane. “We thought it was high time to repay the favor — maybe throw them a bone for their recognition.”
First-round voting for the competition ends May 18, while the second round runs from June 2 to July 22, and the final round goes from Aug. 5 to Sept. 13.
This fall, the top pooch from each category will appear at the Hero Dog Awards gala on Nov. 11 in Palm Beach County. One of the seven category winners will be named the American Hero Dog.
“The American Humane Hero Dog Awards is our way of celebrating the best of our best friends,” Stubis said. “Also, to understand how extraordinary animals can be and what kind of acts of heroism they do for us every day. These don’t have to be dogs that pull us out from burning airplanes. We have extraordinarily courageous K9s in the competition, but sometimes dogs can do things in a more subtle way.”
All rounds open and close at 3 p.m. Eastern Time.
Visit herodogawards.org.
